The creator of music of great spiritual expression, Ernest Bloch was born on
24 July 1880 in Geneva, Switzerland. In his native city, he studied violin
with Louis Rey and composition with Emile Jaques-Dalcroze and later studied
under Eugene Ysaye and Francois Rasse in Brussels. Bloch's principal
training, however, would be in Frankfurt with Iwan Knorr, who most
influenced the composer's distinct musical personality. Bloch appropriated
established and novel musical elements into highly dramatic scores, often
influenced by philosophical, poetic, or religious themes.
A masterly composer of music for strings, Bloch wrote four string quartets,
Schelomo--A Hebrew Rhapsody (for cello and orchestra), and A Voice in the
Wilderness (for orchestra and cello obbligato), which are deeply emotional
works and rank among the most distinguished achievements in the neo-classic
and neo-romantic idiom of early 20th-century music. Bloch's pupil Roger
Sessions praised him for his special ability to express "the grandeur of
human suffering." The successful premiere by the Boston Symphony of Bloch's
Trois Poemes Juifs in 1917 encouraged the composer to settle in the United
States. He soon assumed the directorship of the Cleveland Institute of Music
and later the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He also taught at the
University of California at Berkeley.
Bloch was distinguished in his lifetime by a long list of honors including
honorary membership in the Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome, the first Gold
Medal in Music of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York
Music Critics' Circle Award for his String Quartet No. 2, and the same award
later for his Concerto Grosso No. 2 and String Quartet No. 3. He was also
the recipient of numerous honorary degrees